Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has spent nearly $24 million building the state?s legal case against BP over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Written by

Melinda Deslatte and Michael Kunzelman
Asssociated Press

BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's attorney general has spent nearly $24 million building the state's legal case against BP over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, with much of the money paid to outside law firms that have contributed to his campaigns.

Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's payments to outside lawyers - $15.4 million and counting - account for about two-thirds of his total spending, according to figures requested by The Associated Press.

While Louisiana took a much harder hit than other states during and after the disaster, that spending far exceeds the contract work paid by Caldwell's ...